In vitro case goes to trial

Costa Rica will have to defend its 11-year ban on in vitro fertilization before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in San José, the daily El País reported. The court set a tentative hearing for early September.

The case stems from a 2001 suit filed against Costa Rica with the Washington, D.C.-based Inter-American Human Rights Commission by 10 couples after Costa Rica’s Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) banned the practice in 2000. Costa Rica is the only country in the Western Hemisphere to ban the technique, which the Sala IV ruled violates the rights of unborn children.

In 2011, Laura Chinchilla’s government tried to pass several bills that would allow the practice in Costa Rica, but each died in the Legislative Assembly.

Ombudswoman Ofelia Taitelbaum has said she will file an amicus brief in the case explaining the necessity of allowing in vitro fertilization in the country, El País reported.